{"id":59790,"date":"2025-10-01T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=59790"},"modified":"2025-09-30T12:27:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T16:27:06","slug":"seminary-professors-new-book-examines-the-disconnect-between-black-freedom-fighters-and-their-white-allies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2025\/seminary-professors-new-book-examines-the-disconnect-between-black-freedom-fighters-and-their-white-allies\/","title":{"rendered":"Seminary professor\u2019s new book examines the disconnect between Black freedom fighters and their white allies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2018Damned Whiteness\u2019 by David Evans publishes on Oct. 28<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Eastern Mennonite Seminary Professor David Evans <\/strong>set out to write his book about religious white progressives in the fight for Black freedom, he didn\u2019t expect that his main thesis would flip by nearly 180 degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought I was going to be writing about white allies who could be exemplars for other white people in predominantly white institutions,\u201d said Evans, professor of history and intercultural studies and associate dean of the seminary. \u201cAnd then I stumbled onto some problems and thought, Maybe we should spend some time talking about where we\u2019re going wrong<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After seven years of research and writing, Damned Whiteness: How White Christian Allies Failed the Black Freedom Movement<\/em> is just weeks away from publication. The book, published by The University of North Carolina Press and due out on Oct. 28, offers an unflinching history of white allies\u2014namely Clarence Jordan, Dorothy Day, and Ralph Templin\u2014and the fracturing relationships that followed when their strategies and philosophies didn\u2019t align with Black leaders and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n